The House of Representatives will not carry out the Supreme Court decision to oust Rep. Regina Ongsiako-Reyes and to make way for former congressman Lord Allan Velasco to take the seat for Marinduque, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said on Wednesday.
Belmonte said the House leadership will await for a final ruling on the issuance of a “writ of mandamus” before taking action on the order.
“Our lawyers are studying [the SC order], together with documents from the [House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal,” Belmonte said.
The House, thru the Office of the Solicitor General, is expected to file the motion for reconsideration before the SC to reverse its decision.
Both Belmonte and Reyes are members of the ruling Liberal Party.
This developed as lawyer Harry Roque, counsel for Ongsiako-Reyes, maitained that the congresswoman continues to be the lawful representative of Marinduque in Congress.
Roque said the camp of Ongsiako-Reyes has also filed a motion for reconsideration, and maintained that the HRET, and not the SC, has the sole jurisdiction over Ongsiako-Reyes’ case.
In its ruling, the high court asked House Secretary General Marilyn Barua-Yap, being the public respondent, to “register the name of petitioner Velasco in the roll of members of the House of Representatives after he has taken his oath of office.”
SC spokesman Theodore Te had earlier confirmed the court en banc granted the petition for mandamus filed by the young Velasco ordering Belmonte to administer the oath of former lawmaker as the duly-elected representative of Marinduque.
The SC said the young Velasco was entitled to the writ of mandamus under Rule 65, Sec. 3 because the finality of the court’s ruling in GR No. 207264 and the Comelec resolution in SPA No. 13-053 and SPC No. 13-010 “left no issue as to who is the rightful representative of the lone district of Marinduque.”
Under GR No. 207264, the high tribunal magistrates voted 7-4-3 to dismiss a petition for certiorari filed by Ongsiako-Reyes, contesting her disqualification by the Commission on Elections.
The high tribunal stressed that the Comelec, through its SPA No. 13-053 and SPC No. 13-010, did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Ongsiako-Reyes for being an American citizen.
The Comelec’s disqualification of Ongsiako-Reyes, who was able join the May 13, 2013 mid-term polls, only becomes final the following day or May 14, prompting her to file a second motion for reconsideration.
The Comelec en banc ordered the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) of Marinduque to proclaim the young Velasco as the winning representative in the province’s lone district in disqualifying Reyes.
Voting 5-2, the Comelec en banc declared Ongsiako-Reyes to be lacking the one-year residency required for an elected official.
In March 2015, the First Division of the Comelec canceled her certificate of candidacy because she is an American citizen, a charge which Ongsiako-Reyes denied.